This is a class of mutual exploration. Some of the questions we might address include: What would a healthy attitude toward death look like? What is the difference between physical cure and healing? What lessons for living can we learn from the dying? What do we lose at the soul level by living in a culture that demonizes dying? How can we free ourselves up to accompany others through the end-of-life process? How might music be an important gateway into the healing process at the end of life? Might our relationships with those who have gone before us somehow continue to be living relationships, growing and changing as we, ourselves, grow and change? What might be the potential gifts in our grief? What might the wisdom of the ancients be pointing toward when we are invited to “die before we die”?
We will engage in experiential exercises; draw upon the wisdom of the ancients from many traditions, as well as contemporary resources such as Joan Halifax’s Being With Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death; and Richard Grove’s The American Book of Dying: Lessons in Healing and Spiritual Pain; and draw upon the presenter’s twenty-seven years of experience in working with the terminally ill and their families.
S/he not busy being born is busy dying. Bob Dylan
Die before you die, so that when you die you do not have to die. Found both The Tibetan Book of the Dead and in The Koran
TESTIMONIAL: This class, The Sacred Circle of Life and Death, has been very important to me—life changing. Your leadership, your guidance has helped us navigate these sensitive issues gently. I feel like I’ve grown and confronted some fear and pain. Thank you so much for everything. I will carry this class in my heart. ~ Terry Greenberg, Carroll County schoolteacher
